


Laugh It Up, Fuzzball

by Duck_Life



Category: X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Geeks, Gen, Gratuitous Star Wars References
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-14
Updated: 2015-05-14
Packaged: 2018-03-30 12:15:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3936403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duck_Life/pseuds/Duck_Life
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five times Jean and Hank watched Star Wars together. One time they didn't. And one time they got a second chance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Laugh It Up, Fuzzball

**IV.**

“If you’ve already seen it,” Hank says, shuffling awkwardly down the row of seats, “why exactly are you so compelled to see it again?” It’s dark in the theater and he’s got a ball cap pulled low over his face, but even so he’s certain the blue fur is drawing eyes.

“Because it’s—I don’t even know how to explain it,” Jean says, waving her hands excitedly. “There’s a war and spaceships and—and, oh my God, they do this thing that’s just like telekinesis.” Her eyes shift; she laughs nervously. “Which is awesome because it could never happen in real life.”

“Of course.”

“Of course,” Jean says, and actually _winks_. “And, Hank, there’s a princess and she _kicks ass_.”

Well. He hasn’t seen her this excited in _years_. And the movie looks interesting enough. Clutching the tub of popcorn, he settles beside his friend and tilts his head back. Soon enough, the scroll starts up.

“Exactly how long ago is ‘a long time ago?’” Hank whispers.

“Shhh.”

**V.**

Hank thinks Jean might actually break his hand. And he might care, if he weren’t just as worked up. “Holy _fuck_.”

“I know.”

“Holy FUCK.”

“I KNOW.”

Her grip on his hand lessens slightly as she comes back to herself. The whole audience is, of course, still in turmoil. “He’s his dad,” Hank whispers, any eloquence he might have retained having disappeared as surely as Luke Skywalker’s right hand. “Oh my stars and garters.”

“He’s his _fucking_ dad,” says Jean, who almost never swears.

“But Obi Wan said-”

“Shhh.”

**VI.**

The important things get done first—calling her parents, reconciling with Scott. She has, after all, spent years suspended in an energy cocoon.  

So it seems only natural that she should ask whatever happened to Han Solo.

“I feel like I know what he went through,” Jean comments, tossing a handful of Orville Redenbacher’s into her mouth. Hank’s managed to procure a tape, and she’s made it a priority to watch the final film in the trilogy. “Seriously, though, who is that?” she says, pointing to the masked stranger on screen.

“Someone who loves him,” Hank says, seconds before Carrie Fisher says the line.

“Shhh.”

**I.**

“So,” Jean whispers, slurping on her Coke, “I know he’s just this cute little kid-”

“But you know he’ll grow up to be Darth Vader.”

“And I kinda wanna throw him in a lake.”

“Of course you do.” Hank tosses back a handful of popcorn. “That small child with a bowl cut is going to destroy Alderaan.”

“I _know_.”

“You know who I’d toss into a lake?”

“Jar Jar?”

“Of course.”

**II.**

“Look at these kids,” Hank remarks, stepping into the theater with Jean at his side. “They weren’t here for the original trilogy. They don’t know.”

“Oh, don’t be a nerd elitist,” Jean scolds, dragging him toward the seats she wants. “They’re young! They couldn’t have ‘been here for the original trilogy’ if they wanted to.”

“Sure they could have,” Hank says, bitter. “Time travel.”

“Why,” Jean says as she pivots into a seat, “do you keep bringing up time travel? Are you working on something I don’t know about?”

“No,” he says, “just… you know. _Time travel_. It could happen.”

The trailers start up. “What would you even do with time travel if you had it?” she whispers.

“Go back and stop George Lucas.”

“Are you seriously not over that?”

“ _Han shot first_ , Jean.”

“Shhh.”

**III.**

Hank McCoy stays in his seat long after the credits have stopped rolling. The music plays and the theater empties, and he just sits. Watches the words pan up, waits as the time runs out.

He tries, honestly he does, to take solace in the fact that Jean Grey never did go dark side. She grazed the surface, had the chance to become Dark Phoenix.

They were so damn close to it. If she had lived…

It was a good movie, he thinks. He thinks Jean would have liked it. Not as much as the others, definitely not as much as _Empire Strikes Back_ , but she would have liked it. She would’ve gasped, she probably would have cried.

It takes Hank a long while, sitting there alone in the silent theater, to realize that he himself is crying, with no one there to _shhh_ him.

**VII.**

After watching all six movies in a caffeine-induced haze, as per older Beast’s suggestion, Hank and Jean run out to see _The Force Awakens_. Scott and Warren have no interest, Laura has mysterious plans she chose to share with no one, Bobby—surprise, surprise—has a date with the guy from the froyo shop, and Kitty messages them to let them know that she’d come with them if she weren’t busy in actual outer space.

“You avoided spoilers?” Hank asks Jean with as much solemnity as if they were discussing the fate of the planet.

“Of course,” says Jean.

“Because this isn’t the first showing, you know,” he reminds her. They managed to get tickets to the matinee, but there was a midnight showing and an eight o’clock one before that. “You’re blocking out the thoughts of the employees? And any guests who are here a second time?”

“I’m… yeah, mostly,” Jean says, sinking down in her seat.

“‘Mostly’?”

“It’s _hard_ sometimes.”

“ _What do you know_?”

“Nothing,” she insists. “I’m completely spoiler-free. I didn’t peek. I swear.”

“A true Jedi would never.”

“Shhh.”  


End file.
